Journey Through Fire: The Rise of Wesley Tolson
by Zane Sella
Summary: One young trainer, one incredible destiny. New Celliance is a place filled with danger, adventure, and opportunity. As Wesley takes his leave across this war torn country who knows what awaits for him on his journey to becoming a champion. Original Region and Characters!


**Hello,**

**Thank you for clicking on my story and I hope you stick around and read to the end. This is an OC region with my own OC characters. I've adjusted Pokemon a little to fit the needs of my story so it something doesn't seem right to you within the canon of the anime/games I'm sorry i'm trying to go for a more realistic approach to Pokemon. **

**Thank you to my buddy AJ for looking this over before I submitted.**

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**Journey Through Fire: The Rise of Wesley Tolson  
**

**Chapter One: One Week and Counting**

The bright Monday afternoon glow shone over the west-coast city known as Helios. Well into the spring, even with the sun high in the sky, temperatures were quite comfortable; the busy working class could take their lunches at the nearby parks. The inner city was quite popular as usual with all the trainers passing by to take on the Helios Gym Leader; meaning the mall was packed full of young people trying to get new attire for the upcoming summer.

The outer part of the city of Helios was calm and collected, not the usual chaos that plagued the inner city streets. A view filled with cookie cutter houses of suburbia kept everything in order.

Down a particular street sat East Helios High School where a young man sat with unkempt brown hair that fell past his ear. Hazel-hued eyes looked back at him as he lazily stared out the school window. Little did he know that he was about to start an adventure that would not only change his life, but the country of New Celliance. With graduation just one week away the excitement of getting his very first Pokémon hovered over him, but first he would have to pass his finals.

"Wesley!" the strong cold voice of his teacher shouted throwing a piece of chalk at Wesley and leaving a welt, "Pay attention!"

"Sorry ma'am!" Wesley snapped his eyes forward upon his teacher. She was an older woman, but still displayed many attractive qualities. She had long golden blonde hair that was neatly tied in a bun. Her smooth creamy complexion was present with little of her age pushing through, ocean blue eyes and soft, full, pink pouty lips. Most in Wesley's class would say she was a total bombshell of a teacher, however saying that to her face ended with your doom. Enid Amundson was a known hard ass. It might have been because of the military uniform that, while retired, clung to her curves. Yes, she was mean, but she was fair. Do the work she gave you and you and her would have no problems. That was the first thing she told her students when they got into her class. If you didn't even bother to try you might as well remove yourself or she would remove you with prejudice.

"I don't need your apology, I need your focus," her stern blue glare shot ice towards him. "One week people, the rest of your life will be decided," she paced from the center of the classroom towards the whiteboard in the front. "We have been over this, but let's do it again. Show of hands, how many of you want to be trainers?" Wesley shot his hand up along with a majority of the class. Wesley could see his best friend Hugo's hand high in the sky down the aisle.

"So many huh? Well guess what, the life of a trainer is hard. It doesn't come easy. This is why New Celliance has all these regulations," Enid pointed at a girl in the front named Cecelia. "Why is it we don't let people apply for trainer cards until they've graduated?"

"Because of the war ma'am," Cecelia answered.

Enid folder her arm and turned to the rest of the class, "This is the kind of half assed answer that is going to get you a failing mark."

Cecelia's face instantly turned red and she put her head down. Hugo who clearly harbored feelings for her tried to speak out in her defense, "but-".

"Hugo, I don't care how much you want to stick your underdeveloped nether regions into Miss Gonzales. Don't speak out of turn in my class," her eyes now peering towards Hugo, and possibly into his very soul, "I will toss your ass out myself as I have done with others."

Cecelia recoiled with more embarrassment as Hugo's eyes could only look onto his desk. Nobody dared laugh even though they all wanted to. Wesley shot his hand up quickly. "Go," Enid said pointing at him.

"It was the lack of maturity among the younger trainers. A lot of them were extremely poor and in desperation just to feed themselves and their Pokémon, and thus turned to criminal organizations like the Black Fire Legion to get by. The BFL gained power extremely quickly and staged a coup that nearly crippled our government."

"Very good," she nodded. "It was a glaring mistake letting children out to raise and battle forces of nature. We just simply followed the rules of other countries because hey, it worked for them, right?" Enid was now pacing back and forth with her arms behind her back. "Our trainers might not start as young as in other regions like Kanto, but that doesn't make them any less as good."

There was a loud resounding bell and at Enid's nod the class started to pack their bags. "Finals are tomorrow. I suggest you revise well this evening. You don't want to be held back now of all times. You'll know if you passed by Wednesday and you'll get your Pokémon that day if you passed. Formal graduation is on Friday," Enid said loudly. Everyone had stopped to listen and wide grins formed on all the teens faces.

The hustle of teens funneled out of the classroom and greeted their friends. Wesley saw Hugo talking to Cecelia and judging by the body language he was trying to apologize. Cecelia was a nice girl and she was clearly playing if off as a joke.

"Hey guys," Wesley interrupted to save his friend.

"Wesley, please tell your boyfriend to stop worrying," Cecelia said turning to him.

"Please stop calling us that!" Hugo said annoyed.

"Don't worry baby, she can share us," Wesley said with a half-cocked grin.

"Oh screw you," Hugo mumbled while folding up his arms.

"I think you made him upset," Cecelia said.

"Are you pouting?" Wesley said poking fun at Hugo, who finally gave in and cracked a smile.

"So guys, I'm throwing a little kickback tonight. Nothing big, but my dad wants everyone to come over," Cecelia said to change topics.

"I don't know I really should study…" Wesley said timidly.

"Why? You're like stupid smart," Hugo countered quickly.

"While that doesn't make a lot of sense, thanks, but if I do really well I might get invited to join a team. That would be incredible," Wesley said with a look hope.

Cecelia jumped on the bandwagon, "You have this in the bag, and Enid only said that to drum up the drama because she wants everyone to pass."

"Alright, alright I'll go. Let's hope Ellie will let me though."

"Let me know then!" Cecelia chirped while giving a small wave and turning off to go join her friend Jen.

"Well, time for math review," Hugo said with a drawn out sigh.

The rest of the day was a bore, they finished up the rest of the review from their classes and they headed to Wesley's house. The outer city of Helios was mostly suburbia, a west-side and east-side. The school rivalries were intense. There were a lot of cookie-cutter houses and grid layouts with parks scattered throughout. A few shopping malls and corner marts and only one Pokémon center for the whole outer city, located in the northwestern part of the outer ring; the inner city had three. Wesley's home was only a 10 minute drive away from the school and he wanted to make it home hopefully before Ellie.

As he pulled up in the driveway not spotting her car he had a moment of relief. He opened the front door to find a very simple home. White walls with beige colored furniture and a few pictures along the walls. Ellie was Wesley's older sister, their parents one day up and vanished when she turned 18 and leaving 3 year-old Wesley to her. Ellie was the sole provider for him after that until she got married to Devon 5 years ago. They had their own child now, a girl, named Rosy. Devon and Ellie were both doctors with odd hours so when Wesley walked in and saw Devon, a lean looking, blonde haired, handsome faced 32 year-old in the living room wearing scrubs and folding baby clothes, it wasn't a surprise.

"Sup cool kids," said Devon stopping in the middle of folding a toddler shirt, "going out to celebrate?"

Devon's Audino, Clyde, was being chased down by a tiny, blonde 4 year-old. Rosy stopped and looked at Wesley with a gleam in her eyes. She ran up to him with her arms open and Wesley lifted her up in his arms while watching Clyde slump down to the floor exhausted.

Clyde wasn't pink like most of the Audinos you would see out in the world. There was some red in his coat. Devon had told him once that it was because he was male. All males are red in color and that he got Clyde when he passed his residency and became a full-fledged doctor. It was the only way to get an Audino considering how rare they were in New Celliance.

"Kickback at Cecelia's," Wesley said as he bounced Rosy in his arms while she started to poke at his nose.

"Oh yeah? Well you have," Devon looked at his watch, "five hours before Ellie gets home, she can't not let you go if you're not here."

Wesley covered Rosy's ears. "Don't teach her your bad habits Devon," Wesley said with a smile" Seriously though, thanks."

"Ha-ha. It's no problemo; I know how your sister can get. It's why I married that foxy chick," he said with a toothy grin on his face. Wesley grimaced while Hugo chuckled behind him.

Devon turned to Hugo, "Hey Hugo, you gonna get sweet on Cecelia tonight? C'mon you sly dog, tell me you're going to at least try."

Hugo's face turned pink for what had to be the millionth time that day. Devon and Wesley had a laugh before Wesley set Rosy down and put Clyde at her mercy again. He and Hugo said their goodbyes and headed to his room.

Wesley's room wasn't anything simple like the rest of the house. It sported navy blue colors with a very up-to-date style with the latest Pokémon trends and teams.

He grabbed a remote and flipped onto a popular channel. The National New Celliance Battle Network usually showed off gym battles of any caliber. It just so happened that a Helios City Gym battle was being shown. The text on the screen indicated that it was a battle for the trainer's 5th badge. The battle was actually pretty good, Helios was known for its earth type Pokémon, being strong and sturdy and hard to beat. Not to mention the gym leader, Jim Kurtz, was a master tactician and nationally renowned for his sweeps at the Summer Championships. The trainer was doing pretty well, but when it came down to the last straw Jim made him work for it. The trainer barley won, but in the end he was on his knees with the biggest smile. Wesley could only crave what that was going to be like when he was in that trainer's shoes.

Wesley and Hugo spent the rest of the time goofing around and talking about what Pokémon they wanted for their first. Wesley didn't know while Hugo was set on any dragon-type he could get. When they got the call it was time to head on out they got ready and hopped back in the car.

Once they arrived at a house in a very simple style similar to Wesley's own place, they were greeted by people they've known their whole lives; Jacob, Darby, Jennifer, Cecelia and on top of that Franklin and Josephine Gonzales, Cecelia's parents. The kickback was fun. They danced, talked about their expectations, and ate amazing food grilled up by Franklin. There was laughing throughout the night. Wesley got a few angry texts from Ellie, but he shrugged them off on account of them having so much fun. Hugo tried talking to Cecelia alone all night, but with Franklin's Pinsir standing behind him it was kind of hard.

Things started to settle down and Franklin got up while everyone sat down, "Now, I just wanted to say a few things."

"C'mon Dad," Cecelia moaned.

"No, no honey listen," Franklin started, "I've known you all since you were toddlers, we've been through everything with you. From when Darby and Jen first got together back in middle school, and when they had that scare last year," he tipped his head giving them a you-two-better-calm-your-hormones-down kind of look. "When Wesley and Hugo got married," there was a resounding laugh amongst the group at that one, "and that whole thing with Wesley and Marie last year."

Wesley swallowed hard and looked down at the ground. He took a long breath of air, centered himself and looked back up at Franklin.

"Now you're all going to go off on an adventure to become full-fledged adults, and I'm happy to say that I'm proud of each and every one of you. I know you'll all pass and make something great with yourselves." Cecelia started to tear up slightly while Jen had a wide grin and trying to force back any emotions that Darby might make fun of her for later.

"I have a gift for each of you while you're on your travels," Franklin said. He pulled a small lack case full of SD cards out of his pocket. "You know after the war had ended this country was in ruins. I mean fissures the size of cities, thousands of acres of forest burned down, migration patterns changed and Pokémon started to move out of the region. It was a giant mess! The government contracted me to track them. These SD cards hold all the data I've collected and they'll work with your new Pokédex when you get them on Friday."

Wesley got his with a smile, it was so damn cool. He could feel the adrenaline pumping through himself and he couldn't wait. He wanted to leave; he wanted to adventure and see the world.

"They cover most of the west coast in detail, but you'll get some idea on the east as well," Franklin finished.

"Thank you!" the group said as one and they all got up to give him a hug or pat him on the back. They spent another hour listening to great stories from Franklin's adventures and then it was time to end. Wesley fell asleep happy as could be that night. It didn't matter what happened last year; all that drama, in fact any drama, was behind him. He just closed his eyes counting the time until he would leave.

**... JTF:TROWT ...**

The next day the school lunch room was filled with desks after being turned into their testing room. Wesley was assigned a seat and once the test began he looked at the pages. It was a think packet of three hundred questions; he could hear other student's groans as they looked at the number. As he started he realized the test wasn't that difficult at all. It was actually pretty easy. There was a section that was strange though that took up 30% of the test. It asked about weird problem solving and what-if questions. After a few hours he was done, and he sat back while the rest of his class finished up. As the test came to a close Wesley and his friends headed off to a burger joint and talked about how the test was for each of them.

As they ordered and found seats outside Wesley spotted two people, a couple, walking into the fast food restaurant. The boy was named Ryan, tall and handsome with short straight cut hair. A body built like a model. All the girls wanted him. However the girl next to him was the one Wesley focused on. Her name was Marie and she was shorter than him with long red locks with a pale complexion, freckles sprinkled all over her face with green hues in her eyes that glanced at Wesley for a moment before returning to Ryan.

The whole group watched the couple as they entered and then turned to look at Wesley.

"Guys, I'm over it," Wesley said simply.

"Yeah, who cares if she cheated on you," Darby said sarcastically. He got a nice elbow jab from Jen.

"No it's okay," Wesley said.

"If you ask me your way too passive about it," Jacob started. "You didn't even yell at her. You just let her get away with it."

"Guys, come on don't be rude," Cecelia said. "Wesley, you're an awesome guy. She's dumb for cheating on you like that. The way you found out…" Cecelia trailed off then made a sound of disgust.

"Thank you, but guys I'm truly okay with the situation. She made her choice and that was that."

"Oh my god, will somebody shut this pussy up," said a voice from behind them.

"Oh nooo guys, watch out it's the big-bad Lee trying to bully us again," Darby said in a sarcastic tone. "Go away you predictable fuck. We're trying to have a nice time here." Darby turned to the rest of the group, "Did you guys watch him try on Jim for the Geo Badge?"

Lee started to turn red with anger, "Yeah, well, I got 3 badges in under a year. That's impressive, ask anyone!"

"Darby, you shouldn't be such an ass," said another voice walking up to the table. Eric, Darby's older brother gracefully walked up smiling. You would think they were twins by the way they looked unless you stood them up next to each other, both sported dark black hair, a light brown complexion with a slight rosy tint.

"As for you," Eric turned towards Lee. "Sure, it's impressive, but that defeat by Jim was pretty bad. Did you even learn anything while you were out there?" Eric said coolly.

"I don't have to listen to you. How many badges have you gotten in a year?" Lee countered.

"Two," Eric said simply.

"What? You have the nerve to talk shit to me? Two is pathetic."

"You won't mind a friendly contest between us then?" Eric challenged Lee.

"Done!"

"Hey Eric I don't need you fighting by battles for me!" Darby yelled at his brother. It was no use though; they were already walking off to a nice empty park so the group followed them.

"How about we go with the new rules?" Lee said.

"Fine with me, two points to win."

"Easy."

Both trainers readied their pokéballs.

"New rules?" Hugo asked.

Jacob was the first to speak, "Yeah man, they changed the switch out rules to straight rounds now. You have to use a different Pokémon each round. It is supposed to simulate more strategic battles. You never know what the other guy is going to have and since you can't just switch out a Pokémon because of its type advantage you actually have to train your Pokémon to fight in those situations. They said it's going to start in like a month or so."

The battle had already begun in the midst of all the talking. Eric's Sandslash was, at the command of his trainer, rolling with his spikes barreling down at Lee's Linoone.

"Dodge that and use IRON TAIL!" Lee commanded. The Linoone leaped in the air doing a summersault while his tail gave off a pulsing white light. The attack chipped off one of the spikes on Sandslash's back, but as it rolled to its feet it was visible that the attack had done no real damage.

"I'll show you why I'm the better trainer. ICE BEAM LINOONE!"

"ROLLOUT!" Eric countered.

The beam of frost shot straight forward, but the Sandslash was already spinning as the beam hit him. It was a perfect way to counter something that would have been in the favor of Linoone, the rolling motion of the spikes was throwing the beam in every direction instead of sticking to the Sandslash. It rolled through the ice beam striking Linoone throwing him back. Linoone hit the ground hard, but slowly got to its feet.

"Finish it off, RAPID SPIN!" Sandslash reacted immediately at the command of it trainer. It didn't take long for the stone spikes to strike Lee's Pokémon. Linoone instantly looked in worse shape as the spikes tore little gashes into its body. Panting the Linoone stumbled slightly and that was all Eric's Sandslash needed to start into another Rollout move striking a monstrous uncontested blow into the Linoone's chest. It was clear the Linoone was unable to battle. Lee recalled his Pokémon.

"I'll give you that using a TM to teach him a move like that was pretty clever, almost caught me off guard," Eric smirked at Lee.

"Shut up and get ready for the next Pokémon! He won't go easy on you," Lee said with a sour tone in his voice. Eric returned his Sandslash and pulled another pokéball from his holster. Both trainers took the ready stance and threw out their Pokémon.

What stood before Lee was a steel egg shaped Pokémon with green spikes sticking out from all over its surface. Two yellow eyes glared down at the rocky formation of Eric's Rhyhorn.

"RAZORLEAF!" The steel egg Pokémon named Ferrowseed started to gleefully spin as tiny razor sharp leaves flew from the top of it. Following the whirlwind of spinning Ferrowseed flew directly at the Rhyhorn. Despite the elemental advantage Eric didn't seem worried.

"Alright buddy, get underground." Everyone was shocked at how fast Eric's Rhyhorn kicked its front legs to get underground.

"Clever. You need to avoid my grass-type because you know you won't stand a chance." Lee taunted.

"You talk too much. NOW RHYHORN! ROCKBLAST!"

In the distance Rhyhorn popped its head out of the ground and fired a giant boulder at the Ferrowseed. It was a direct hit. Ferrowseed hit the ground with a thud, an obvious dent in its steel coat.

"Finish it with MAGNITUDE!" The ground under them started to shake and a few cracks in the ground around the Ferrowseed started to appear when a long rock spike looking formation raced from the ground, hit it and sent it flying. It crashed back to the earth with a loud clang. Eric smirked at the shocked Lee, "Magnitude 9."

Lee started to curse loudly as Eric returned his Pokémon to its ball.

"You took care of that with ease," Wesley said as he walked up to Darby's brother.

"His style is all smoke and mirrors. Using his parent's money to buy attacks that would be one hit wonders on Pokémon. Catching people off guard, it's such a cheese move."

Eric took a small case from his pocket and opened it up showing off his two badges. He took out his Force Badge which looked like a small gold and silver target with crosshairs. He turned it around showing off a golden 8 on it.

"When you battle the gym leader they give you a rank. There are a lot of dirty tricks you can use out there to win. Some people are cheap so these ranks are a way to show how much prestige you earn from you battles with the gym leaders," he explained.

"Whoa," Jacob said, "I read about that, they said the highest you can get is a nine."

"I took it slow, my first gym battle I trained for two months before I took it. Six months for my second one. The rest I spent exploring and learning as much as I could."

They all went back and enjoyed their meals while Eric told them about his travels and how he's back in town to see Darby graduate. The rest of the day was spent hanging around the mall and small chit-chat here and there. Once Wesley returned home it he found Ellie home with Rosy. This time the scene was different, Ellie's pink Audino, Bonnie, was making Rosy clean up the mess that she had made while her Leavanny, Beverley, was helping Ellie scrub the kitchen.

"Hey little brother!" she called as she heard him come in. Like Wesley she had long chestnut brown hair that was tied back into a ponytail, big hazel eyes and a wide smile that showed her pearly whites as she moved through the hallway from the kitchen to the doorway. "How was it, did you pass? Please tell me you tried. I knew you shouldn't have gone out last night. You should have studied."

Relax Ellie, it was pretty simple, a piece of cake."

"Not everything is easy in life you know," her voice going stern.

"I know, I know. But truly, it was easy. If I fail I'd be mega-surprised."

"You'd be mega-black and blue," she said holding a sponge in the most threatening manner she could muster.

Wesley gave her a smile and nodded. "It's nothing to worry about. We'll know tomorrow, I'm going to go shower now. I'll be down later for dinner okay?"

Ellie nodded and went back into the kitchen. Wesley had always considered her more a mother than a sister. He couldn't remember his own parents at all, but it really didn't matter to him. He was happy, she was always there when he needed her and that was all he could ask for. She was his protector and nothing would change that ever.

******... JTF:TROWT ...**

The next day Wesley approached school in anticipation, he couldn't wait. A few hours and he would be on his way to getting his first Pokémon_. He and his friends all gathered at the front of the classroom to talk about which they wanted and to wait for Enid to show up. Cecelia wanted a Teddyursa after hearing a story from her father about how Ursaring were amazing combatants. Jen aspired for a Milotic even though the chances for finding them on the preserve was damn near impossible._

_The atmosphere was light hearted until they all heard the door burst open. Enid was standing tall with her perfect posture. The room went silent immediately. She was holding a bunch of envelopes in her hand and started walking around to each desk handing them out. She handed Wesley his and he quickly tore open the top pulling out the folded sheet of paper._

**Wesley Tolson Academic Final Scores:**

**Language: 89**

**Math: 92**

**Science: 83**

**Problem Solving: 99**

**History: 80**

Wesley's mouth went wide. He'd passed, not just barely, these were actually pretty high scores too. He wasn't sure what the problem solving meant, but who the cared, 99 was the best you can get. The class went into a buzz. It looked like everyone had passed. Wesley was the only one to score marginally high in the problem solving portion. Hugo getting a 76 and Darby getting a 80 were the only ones even close.

After a couple of minutes Enid spoke out, "Congratulations all of you," she said with a half-smile. "You all worked very hard and achieved something great. Now I know you're all excited to go forth, get your Pokémon,_ and start your journey, but I have a quick announcement first." Enid started to pace and took in a long deep breath of air._

_"I'm retiring from teaching this year," as she said this each person had a confused look on her face. "Because I've been asked to head the Helios Gym after Jim retires."_

_"WHAT?!" the class sounded together. Enid just gave a soft smile. "I ask something of all of you now. If you can make it, I want to be your ninth and final gym battle. When you come back to Helios to challenge me for the badge I want to see how strong you've become. This is the last thing I'm going to ask of you as your teacher."_

_And then it was completely silent. The entire classroom was speechless. Maybe because they all knew that Enid was no joke. Taking her on was not an easy feat. She was a former general in the military and was known for her prestigious battles with her Pokémon._

_"Okay, deal," Wesley said into the quite. "They said it takes around three to four years right? Okay, I'll see you then."_

_Enid gave him a nod, "I look forward to it." She turned and walked towards the door, "Move it maggots! Time to become trainers!"_


End file.
